MESSRS Blair and Brown are making much of wiping out Third World debt, which amounts to billions of pounds, in the name of compassion - albeit with some unattractive strings attached.

If Blair and Brown can wipe off billions of pounds of debt, owed by African countries, why not help to get rid of poverty in this country? We should come first, not shoved down the pecking order.

The poor families in this country must repay the money paid to them by mistake, in yet another of the Government's grandiose, ramshackle schemes, namely tax credits. The demands are infinitesimal in Treasury terms, but terrifyingly large to the families concerned. After all the mistakes aren't theirs, but a government department's fault.

How about showing some real compassion to our own people for once?

Tom Mitchell,

Mendip Close,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 11:11 Tuesday, July 12, 2005